Over the past few days, we’ve been talking about the “crisis” we face in the church.

I’ve loved reading each one of your responses whether they were:

personal reply emails

comments on the blog

messages via Facebook or

comments on Youtube and Facebook.

Thanks for being a part of a great conversation.

From the variety of comments, it seems pretty clear that most if not all agree there is some sort of problem.

There is the personal frustration of parents, the collective frustration of teachers and catechists, and perhaps the overwhelming frustration of church workers trying help lead the charge of rebuilding the local church.

A friend of mine who works in the church put it like this:

I wish the minimum requirement of people who worked in religious education, evangelization, etc was simply one thing: they have evangelized one person in their life and led them to a relationship with God.

We have to stop trying to give what we don’t have. This, however, doesn’t mean we need to give up, it means we need a new way to help people.

We need to re-energize parents, catechists, and everyday Catholics who want to share faith with others but feel lost.

I’ve just put the finishing touches on a new course that will:

Help people grow in their relationship with God and understanding of their own faith.

Give people tools to help practically share faith with others

Deliver the course in a way that’s easy for people to watch and implement in their lives

It’s called Sharing Faith.

It will be available to purchase tomorrow, Wednesday, Sept 12 at 9:00 am EST.

I’ll be sending you all the details in the morning…

Keep an eye out for that email…

See you tomorrow.

Andy

P.S. A quick action item for you: I would love to pray for you today. Shoot me an email (andy(at)redeemedonline.com) and I will remember your prayer request in my prayers today.Thanks for reading to the bottom of this post. 😀👊

It was fun this summer at the beach to watch my 2-year-old son keep trying to take a bucket of water from the ocean and carry it back to our sand castle. He would spill every drop out accidentally before making it back. He kept trying anyway to no avail. This was cute to watch.

It’s not so cute when we keep metaphorically doing this in our parishes.

We know things aren’t working but we keep on keeping on.

If you ask the majority of pastors, church workers, and people in the pews, “is our current religious education model effective at making disciples and evangelizing?”

I know most would begrudgingly tell you “no.”

Here’s the more intriguing question, why do we keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result?

Today’s video is about pondering that question and looking even deeper at the crisis this has caused in the church. I would love to hear your thoughts. Please join in the conversation below or shoot me a message.

A quick note, I recorded this series before the McCarrick scandal and the PA grand jury report came to light. In the video when I speak of “crisis” I am not directly referring to the sex abuse crisis, but feel these videos are even more important today. The scandal we face is a direct result of sick people doing reprehensible acts. We have to stop pretending everything is okay.We can no longer enable terrible pretenders to be wolves in sheep’s clothing. We need to make disciples and root out evil in our church. Our current scandal needs accountability and justice to happen, but we also need to go back to the gospel. We need to give our lives to ensure that people are being formed in the love of Jesus, encountering Jesus and turning from sin towards holiness. The church needs you. Christ is calling you to be a saint.

I am sorry. Sometimes I am pretty bad at the social part of social media.

I fall into the trap. I watch from the sidelines of people’s lives. I look and don’t get involved. I waste time scrolling through endless pictures, ads, videos, and more.

I don’t think social media is a bad thing. I believe the opposite. Social media canbe isolating, jealous inducing, and just plain bad for your health and wellbeing. Social media can also beuplifting, inspiring, and a place to share what is true, good, and beautiful. This is why we started Redeemed Online.

What I continue to realize is that the problem doesn’t start with society. The problem starts with me. We can make a difference in the way we live our lives, and this includes social media.

I am making it my goal personally to be intentional on social media and invite you to do the same. What if before you started scrolling endlessly, you said a simple prayer? This is going to be what I am going to do for the next several weeks: Pray and then intentionally engage with people and try to build them up. I hope you’ll do the same (maybe you already are!) God created us to be social. Let’s be who God has designed us to be both on social media and as we interact with people we encounter.

With Redeemed Online our goal is to bring the “Social” to Catholic Social Media. This month we are also going to do a live video each week on Tuesday. In it, I’ll be happy to answer any questions you might have, and I’ll do a little reflection on the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday. I’ll shoot a quick email about the time for the Facebook Live video next week. Don’t worry if you can’t watch live or don’t use Facebook, I’ll repost the video on redeemedonline.com.

Before diving into this week’s video, I wanted to share with you an important note. As you may know, tomorrow, September 29 at 12:45 p.m., our Kickstarter for our BIG daily video campaign for Advent and Lent ends. As of writing this email, we are at about $15,000 of $27,000 which is a great start, but we’ve got a way to go to make this project happen. A quick reminder: Kickstarter is all or nothing, meaning if we don’t hit the minimum goal the project doesn’t get funded, and no one gets charged.

I know we can do this but only with your support. I realize not everyone can contribute financially but everyone can share the campaign via social media or even via email and everyone can pray.

Those of you that are able, we can use your financial support. Donate today by clicking here. Don’t wait after 12:45 p.m. tomorrow, it will be too late. I know that God is going to use this project to reach millions of people.

Help make this awesome project come into reality. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1808806039/sharejesus-2018/

Thanks for all your support. Tonight at 9:30 EST I am going to do a Facebook Live Video. I hope you’ll join us at facebook.com/redeemedonline. I’ll be sharing some exciting updates about the project and answer any questions you might have before the project ends. Hope you’ll join us!

This Week’s Video-

Who are you in the story? As we read Scripture, it is helpful to imagine ourselves in the story. Naturally, we don’t imagine ourselves as the “bad guys” or those whom Jesus is rebuking. If you’ve been coming to church for many years, I think it’s imperative to listen to what Jesus is saying to the Scribes and the Pharisees. Although the Gospels often show them missing the mark or trying to make Jesus stumble, they are the “most religious” people of Jesus’ time.

I hope this week’s video encourages you in a new way. The longer I follow Jesus, the more I know my absolute need for him. I pray you do too and invite him into your needs and your brokenness today.